„Sok szíves üdvözlettel régi barátos…”. Colegamenti di amicizia di Coriolan Petranu con storici magiari

"„Sok szíves üdvözlettel régi barátos...” (“With kind regards, your old friend...”). Coriolan Petranu’s Friendly Connections to the Hungarian Historians. Coriolan Petranu is the founder of modern art history education and scientific research in Transylvania. He had received special education in this field of study that is relatively new in the region. He started his studies in 1911 at the University of Budapest, attending courses in law and art history. During the 1912-1913 academic year he joined the class of Professor Adolph Goldschmiedt (1863-1944) at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin. The professor was an illustrious personality from the same generation as art historians Emil Mâle, Wilhelm Vögte, Bernard Berenson, Roger Fry, Aby Warburg, and Heinrich Wölfflin, specialists who had provided a decisive impetus to art historical research during the twentieth century. In the end of 1913, Coriolan Petranu favored Vienna, with its prestigious art historical school attached to the university from the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There he completed and perfected his education under the supervision of Professor Josef Strzygowski (1862-1941). The latter scholar was highly appreciated for his contributions to the field of universal art history by including the cultures of Asia Minor (Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Persia), revealing the influence that this area had on proto-Christian art, as well as by researching ancient art in Northern Europe. In March 1920 the young art historian successfully defended his doctoral dissertation entitled Inhaltsproblem und Kunstgeschichte (”Content and art history”). He thus earned his doctor in philosophy title that opened him access to higher education teaching and art history research. His debut was positively marked by his activity as museographer at the Fine Art Museum in Budapest (Szepműveszeti Muzeum) in 1917-1918. Coriolan Petranu has researched Romanian vernacular architecture (creating a topography of wooden churches in Transylvania) and his publications were appreciated, published in the era’s specialized periodicals and volumes or presented during international congresses (such as those held in Stockholm in 1933, Warsaw in 1933, Sofia in 1934, Basel in 1936 and Paris in 1937). The Transylvanian art historian under analysis has exchanged numerous letters with specialists in the field. The valuable lot of correspondence, comprising several thousands of letters that he has received from the United States of America, Great Britain, Spain, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the USSR, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Egypt represents a true history of the stage and development of art history as a field of study during the Interwar Period. The archive of the Art History Seminary of the University in Cluj preserves one section dedicated to Hungarian letters that he has send to Hungarian specialists, art historians, ethnographers, ethnologists or colleagues passionate about fine art (Prof. Gerevich Tibor, Prof. Takács Zoltán, Dr. Viski Károly, Count Dr. Teleki Domokos). His correspondence with Fritz Valjavec, editor of the “Südostdeutsche Forschungen” periodical printed in München, is also significant and revealing. The letters in question reveal C. Petranu’s significant contribution through his reviews of books published by Hungarian art historians and ethnographers. Beyond the theoretical debates during which Prof. Petranu has criticized the theories formulated by Prof. Gerevich’s school that envisaged the globalization of Hungarian art between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period and that also included in this general category the works of German masters and artists with other ethnic backgrounds, he has also displayed a friendly attitude and appreciation for the activity/works of his Hungarian colleagues (Viski Károly and Takács Zoltán). The previously unpublished Romanian-Hungarian and Hungarian-Romanian set of letters discussed here attest to this. Keywords: Transylvania, correspondence, vernacular architecture, reviews, photographs, Gerevich Tibor, Dr. Viski Károly "

Reflecții asupra conceptului de artă obiectivă în contextul artei contemporane

"Reflections on the concept of objective art in the context of contemporary art. Objective art communicates about the human being and his/her place in the universe, about the cosmic laws and the role they play in human life and provide clues as to how man can relate to them. From literary sources attesting to the idea that art in its origin had the role of transmitting knowledge to future generations, we deduce that in ancient times all art forms could be read like a book, and those who knew how to read, fully understood the meaning of the knowledge that was incorporated in these art forms. Nevertheless, there are two forms of art, one very different from the other: objective art and subjective art. Everything that we call art today is subjective art. Objective art is the authentic work resulted from the deliberate, premeditated efforts of a conscious artist. In the act of his creation, the artist avoids or eliminates any subjective or arbitrary element and the impression that such a work evokes in others is always defined. Keywords: objective art, the art of antiquity, contemporary art "

Scipione Borghese: Actor protagonist pe pământurile tuscolane

"Scipione Borghese: Leading Actor on Tuscan Lands. The contribution focuses on the figure of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577-1633) and on the role he playedas patron of the arts in the Colli Albani area, in particular in the city of Frascati (located 20 kilometers east of Rome). The cardinal, nephew of Pope Paul V Borghese and very important personality of the Roman curia, is investigated hereas a promoter of the arts and in particular as the patron of many architectural and landscape arrangements made on the hills of Frascati. The villas purchased by the Borghese family under went enlargement, reconstruction and decoration (such as Villa Taverna, Villa Torlonia, Villa Mondragone and Villa Grazioli). The cardinal and the Villas moved a lot of money and many artistic workers (architects, painters, sculptors, plasterers, masons, etc.) that made Frascati the Petrified testimony of the economic, political and cultural ideas of the Borghese himself. Keywords: Scipione Caffarelli Borghese; Paolo V Borghese; Flaminio Ponzio; Girolamo Rainaldi; Giovanni Vasanzio; Matthäus Greuter; Rome; Frascati; Alban Hills; Monte Porzio Catone; Burghesianum, patronage; Villa "

Ipostaze portretistice. Studiu de caz: împăratul Franz Joseph I

"Portrait Sequences. Case Study: Emperor Franz Joseph I. The paper provides a brief overview of how one of Europe’s longest-lived sovereigns wanted to remain in the memory of posterity. For this purpose, a series of official portraits of Emperor Franz Joseph I were analyzed, noting his preference for several typological series. The Collections of the National History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca shelters in its patrimony a series of objects related to the emperor, among which there are a number of three graphic portraits representative for each of the great typological series observed. Keywords: Franz Joseph I, portrait, graphics, 19th century "

Armonia spațialității pozitive și negative în sculptura artistului Ingo Glass

"Harmony of Positive and Negative Spaciousness in Ingo Glass sculpture. The aim of this article is to discuss issues regarding the ways spaciousness and harmony of positive and negative surfaces in Inglo Glass sculpture are valorized. The artist was born in 1941 in Timișoara, he studied at the Traditional School of Arts from Lugoj and then he attended the university in Cluj. Between 1967-71 he worked as curator at the Museum of Contemporary Arts from Galați and he established connections with visual artists from all over the country. Later on, between 1972-73 he worked as teaching assistant at the Architecture University from Bucharest and then he became cultural consultant at the German Culture House Friedrich Schiller. During this period, Ingo Glass created a Constructivist Art with metal structures developed vertically following the spatial pattern specific to the great Gothic cathedrals– the most famous work Septenarius was built in 1976 on the Danube boardwalk from Galați. Being forced by the political circumstances from the Socialist Republic of Romania, he emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1979, he moved to München where he worked for the Municipal Art Gallery and where he was integrated in the group of Concrete-Constuctivist Art artists. After 1989 he came back to Romania with different exhibitions and he created public monuments in Galați, Timișoara, Moinești and Lugoj. Then, in 1992 he presented his PhD thesis about the influence of Constantin Brâncuși Art over the 20th century sculpture. Between 1989-1998 the artist crystallized an original visual concept based on the usage of the basic geometric shapes in conjunction with the primary colours. Ingo Glass upgraded Bauhaus theory and he associated the square with blue, the triangle with yellow and the circle with red. By using shapes and primary colours the artists creates Concrete Art, a new symbolic universe, purely geometrical, the harmony of his entire work being given by the proportion and link between full and empty spaces. Expanded spaciousness specific to the Constructivst Art phase experiments the architecture-sculpture link and the monumentality of the metallic structures encourages the entrance to the central core of works. The open, non-material dimension forms the main volume of the sculpture, the empty space dominates the full shape and it outlines the effects of an unrated and irrational spaciousness. Balanced spaciousness specific to the Concrete Art phase experiments geometrical combinations, based on the basic shapes in positive and negative intersections, by the spaciousness and non-spaciousness link, the pace between full and empty spaces. The usage of the three basic geometrical shapes also influenced the combining vocabulary of these elements, and it even ensured the ordering and deduction of the empty space. The utopia of basic forms expresses tendencies towards positive irreductible forms of energy or negative forms through non-materiality, where the concepts of mass, weight, space and time are added. In each of his works, the artist used a proportion between the elements of the composition through a rational interpretation stimulated by the achievement of a geometrical order as the essential basis of tasks. The relation between positive and negative spaciousness appears constantly in the sculpture of the last century and the rhytm and sequence of its spatial effects are determined by a sense of proportion that involves an aesthetic of proportion. Thus, we can definitely say that the work of the artist Ingo Glass originally captures all these aspects of Contemporary Art. Keywords: sculpture, spaciousness, Ingo Glass, constructivism, Concrete Art. "

Portretul librarului Németh – o lucrare inedită din creația timpurie a lui Székely Bertalan

"The Portrait of the Bookseller Németh – an Unknown Artwork from the Early Creation of Székely Bertalan. The study presents an unknown portrait from the early years of Székely Bertalan’s creation. The arguments on which the identification of the painter and the sitter’s portrait were based are presented. Also, the context in which the portrait was painted at Brașov in 1856 is presented and data are provided on the personality of the model, Wilhem Németh, bookseller. Keywords: painter, unknown portrait, Székely Bertalan, Brașov "

„Maestri muratori” și constructori transilvăneni, în cadrul programului arhitectural al „Episcopiei Greco-Catolice Gherla”, în perioada 1853-1918

"“Maestri muratori” and Transylvanian builders, within the architectural program of the “Greek Catholic Episcopate Gherla” between 1853 and 1918. In the second half of the 19th century, in Transylvania there was a demand for specialized labor, on construction sites such as the construction of railways, the construction of roads and bridges for which Italians came from areas with a recognized constructive tradition, such as those in the Trentino area, are encouraged and supported by the Austrian administration to emigrate. The Italian emigrants in Transylvania, mostly working in the field of construction, were a community poor in resources, but rich in human resources and entrepreneurship. In the alternative, these Italian builders, “master builders”, permanently established in Transylvania will contract smaller construction sites, proposals of wealthier rural parish communities, the case of former border villages able to financially support more elaborate constructions, morpho-stylistically and decoratively, regulated under the umbrella of the same imperial restrictions under which it was built in all Austrian provinces of the period. In the absence of relevant archival data on the paternity of the buildings discussed here, the priority tool of this study to identify the collaboration of Italian “master builders” is the stylistic investigation based on the certainty of their presence in the context of three church buildings related to the reference period: from Cășeiu, built by Antonio Baizero from Udine, the Roman Catholic church from Ileanda, built by Italian emigrants to serve their religious service and the church from Livada (Dengeleag), built by Lorenzo Zottich, possibly belonging to a second generation of emigrant builders Italians in Transylvania. All these constructions have common stylistic features, integrated into one of the three representative categories, identified within the “Greek Catholic Episcopate of Gherla”, namely the most elaborate architectural model agreed by the Austrian authorities: rural churches with a single tower on the facade, tower with a neoclassical baroque-inspired profiling that also involves the most complex local level of labor of the moment. In the context of the lack of relevant archival data on the constructive paternity in most of these buildings, the identification of the presence and participation of Italian builders on construction sites within the “Greek Catholic Diocese of Gherla” uses as main study tool, stylistic analysis of monuments, which results in the launch of hypotheses meant to be validated in the future through applied studies by the archive. Morpho-constructive characteristics similar to the churches in Cășeiu, Ileanda, Livada (Dengeleag) crowned by the presence of the neo-baroque tower, the corrugated cornice that integrates decorative clocks, with a high level of difficulty in terms of construction, indicate a possible presence of Italian emigrant builders: Orman, Cluj County (1865-1867), Livada - Dindeleag, Cluj County (1868), Buciumi, Sălaj County (1872), Rus, Sălaj County (1890-1894), Poieni, Cluj County (1892), Apahida (1892), Borșa (1900), Dobricul Mare, Bistrița Năsăud county (1902), Sâncraiu Almașului, Sălaj county (1902), Agrieș, Bistrița Năsăud county (1905-1906), Șieu Cristur (1906), Bistrița Năsăud county, Lunca Ilvei (1906-1910), Bistrița Năsăud county, Chizeni (1910), Bistrița Năsăud county, Urișor (inc. 1910), Cluj county, Rohia, Maramureș county (1911), Church from Sașa (1907-1911), Alba county, Diviciorii Mici, Cluj county, (1912), Surduc, Sălaj county (1913), Câțcău, Cluj county (1914). However, the final demonstration remains to be validated following documented related archival studies. Keywords: Italian emigrants, Greek catholic architecture, “Greek Catholic Episcopate Gherla”, Greek catholic church from Cășeiu, Italian Roman catholic church in Ileanda, Greek catholic church from Livada (Dengeleag), Lorenzo Zottich, Antonio Baizero da Udine "

Siebenbürgisch-deutsche Künstlerinnen vom Ende des 19. und Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts

"Transylvanian German women artists from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The paper is aiming at analyzing the life and art of a group of six German women artists from Transylvania, the first ones who studied abroad, real forerunners for the next generation of female plastic artists. Emancipated ladies, determined to become artists and earn their own money, the gifted women studied in Budapest, Vienna, Munich or Paris. Only Molly Marlin did not come back home, while the others had a prodigious artistic and pedagogical activity, being present at the annual exhibitions, together with well-known male colleagues. Keywords: art academies, women artists, painters, graphic artists, art teachers, exhibitions, Sibiu, Betty Schuller, Hermine Hufnagel, Molly Marlin Horn, Anna Dörschlag, Lotte Goldschmidt, Mathilde Berner Roth "

Il Convegno AICA del 1984. La Presidenza Hăulică e la questione dei Marmi del Partenone

"The 1984 Conference of the International Association of Art Critics. The Presidency of Dan Hăulică and the Issue of the Parthenon Sculptures. In 1984, the Conference of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), chaired by the Romanian Dan Hăulică (1932-2014), was organized for the first time in Greece; the event offered an opportunity for historians and art critics of various nationalities to meet. The theme of the conference, „Contemporary art and the Greek world. The XXth century in the face of the civilizations that have followed one another in the Greek space”, on the one hand honored the host country and on the other, placing the accent on the relationship between XXth century art and the Western artistic tradition, was part of the international discussion on the end of the avant-gardes. The complex relationships between the ancient and the contemporary were discussed in terms of influences, continuity and discontinuity. Particular attention was paid to the concept of myth and the mythical dimension of contemporary art. On the other hand, the generic definition of „Greek world"", intentionally chosen by the Greek section of the AICA, re-proposed the national narrative of an essentially unitary historical-artistic development. The Conference also had a dimension of international political significance connected to the fact that the previous year the AICA, an organization affiliated with UNESCO, had approved a motion for the return to Greece of the Parthenon marbles kept at the British Museum. In Athens, the confirmation of solidarity with the Greek cause was also a matter of electoral campaign for the renewal of the Presidency of the AICA. Keywords: AICA Congress, art discourse, contemporary art, Parthenon marbles, classical heritage, myth "

Vocational Schools and Arts & Crafts Influences in Transylvania from the Great Exhibition to Bauhaus

"The paper discusses the approximately 100-year presence and transformation of the approach and mentality of arts and craft movements which emerged in the mid-19th century from the aspect of industrial education workshops in Transylvania. In late 19th-century Hungary, the approach of artistic innovation, spread with the help of William Morris’s and Walter Crane’s works, is perhaps most immediately seen in the creative workshops that approached the relationship between aesthetics and technology rather differently. It appeared in the works of the British Arts & Crafts movement and also in the curriculum of late 19th-century Hungarian vocational schools and institutions of vocational education, as well as in the methodology of art reform movements that sprung up after World War I, the most familiar example of which was the Bauhaus. The guidelines for workshop-based education and training, the implementation of technical innovations and new artistic trends into the education, an emphasis on the students’ individual skills, facilitating the individual’s creativity and imagination, the primary role of architecture, the adaptation of basic building principles of modern homes, strong personal relationship and cooperation between teachers and students were the bases of the educational reform that started in the 1840s and continued for a century. The curriculum of industrial vocational schools in Hungary included the development of drawing, modelling and form-creation skills, with the help of which many of those who graduated from these institutions, made a great impact on avantgarde and modernism between the two world wars. Keywords: vocational education, industrial education, applied arts, design, Arts and Crafts movement, Bauhaus "